Technical water work

Does Coach Sheehan look impressed?

Back on the water this morning with several small boats. Low mileage but a couple of basic drills were introduced. One at the front end and one at the finish. From the outset I think it is important that any work on the 'preparation' phase of the stroke is done in tandem with work on or around the blade placement so that the athlete understands that the former enables the quality of the latter. Too often work on the recovery is isolated and becomes nothing more than an exercise in doing the recovery.
I am also very keen that athletes take responsibility to undertake the drills in their own time. Rowing is so often over coached (it can of course be under coached) and I want the members of the squad to think like a musician would. You see your teacher, they give you a number of exercises and you go away and practise them paying attention to the quality of what you are doing and in turn the improvements that come to the bigger picture as a consequence. In rowing we can tend to isolate technical work to technical sessions and then do a work session that is just work with no connection to the technical session that you may have done a day or two earlier.
This evening saw most of the squad in the Weights room for the first time this season (I say most of the squad, there were some faces missing..). The session in this space this season is designed to prepare the athlete for the session then to move through some core specific exercises then the main lifting block before returning to the core. All the exercises require a focus on activating the right muscles and moving the right way. Any movement carried out in the weights room is training the body to move like that in the boat, so we must be consistent and diligent in not ingraining poor form.
It is very clear that there is much work to do, this is as it should be as we have many, many weeks to work on it all. What is also clear is that we are a good few steps ahead of where we were this time last year, an important and very positive factor in determining the ongoing development of the club.